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RedSky Offers E911 App for Smart Phones

By Dian Schaffhauser

05/14/10

A company that sells enhanced 911 (E911) applications has developed a smartphone app for campuses that transmits location details from the mobile phone during the call. RedSky Technologies has introduced My e911, an app for Apple iPhone, Google Android, and Blackberry devices.

The app continually monitors the smartphone for a 911 call. When one is made, the app captures the best available location via GPS, WiFi, or cell tower, in that order, and communicates it to the emergency dispatch with a Google map pinpointing the location of the caller.

The application continues to poll for new location information while the 911 call is underway to constantly improve the precision of the location data, the company said. If the smartphone user is on the campus WiFi network when placing an emergency call, My e911 communicates with RedSky's E911 Manager to poll the WiFi network and determine the precise location coordinates of the caller. The software can continue to track callers who may be moving or running in an emergency.

The app can be preconfigured and branded by the IT or security organizations to make campus security the default entity to be notified for all 911 calls. My e911 can then be distributed to users via the college Web portals. Once it's installed on the smartphone, the app prompts users to set up their emergency dialing string if it hasn't been pre-set and guides them to the My e911 Web portal to create a personal emergency contact notification lists. Those contacts will receive the same notification in the event of a 911 call.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a writer who covers technology and business for a number of publications. Contact her at dian@dischaffhauser.com.